Former Trump adviser John Bolton: an increase in NATO forces will discourage Russia from aggression in Ukraine
John Bolton. Photo: Jonathan Drake / Reuters
NATO and the United States should increase their military contingent on the borders with Russia, this will discourage Moscow from further escalating the conflict in Ukraine. This was stated by the former national security adviser to former US President Donald Trump John Bolton in the author's column on the 19FortyFive website.
Bolton believes that an increase in NATO forces will force Russia to abandon its aggressive plans against Ukraine and other countries that cooperate with the West. “[In this case,] Russian generals will be able to reconsider their plans to invade Ukraine in close proximity to new deployments of NATO forces,” the former adviser said.
Bolton called on Allies to fulfill their commitments to increase the defense budget to two percent of each member's GDP and to increase cooperation between defense chiefs. “Western defense ministers and the chairmen of their joint headquarters should gather in Kiev, Chisinau, Tbilisi and even Minsk for joint consultations,” the ex-politician said.
The ex-adviser also called on the European Union to cancel the certification process and the commissioning of the Russian pipeline Nord Stream-2 until Moscow withdraws its troops from the border with Ukraine. “The EU needs to take seriously the renewed threat to Russia, which, after all, is on their border, not on the US border,” Bolton added.
Earlier, EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell called Moscow's conditions to stop further NATO expansion “completely unacceptable” and noted that this was “a purely Russian agenda.”
